Mitchell Family and Mitchells/Richards, The

Abstract

Describes a small, luxury retail chain's operational sophistication achieved through the use of technology and "high-touch" customer service. A family-run business, Mitchells has built its success with a customer service strategy known internally as "hugging." The term is deceptively simple. The firm's true success lies in its blend of a warm, other-oriented corporate culture, sophisticated information technology, and an effective family business structure. It is currently considering further expansion for future generations. A rewritten version of an earlier case.

More from these Authors

This case details the transformation of a health care delivery system, UnityPoint Health - Fort Dodge, into a Pioneer Accountable Care Organization (ACO) after the passage of health reform in the United States. The case explores in detail how the hospital CEO and staff designed and implemented new models of care delivery and built relationships across health care delivery settings in an effort to better cooridnate patient care and lower health care costs. Using patient stories, care delivery prior to the formation of the ACO is compared to care delivery after the formation of the ACO. Three novel programs that were cornerstones to transformation efforts are highlighted: 1) reducing readmissions; 2) creating advanced medical teams; and 3) creating a palliative care program.

In both the private and public sectors, organizations around the world face increasingly pressing questions about how to stimulate and manage change for long-term environmental, social, and economic sustainability. The purpose of this chapter is to highlight the roles of multiplier firms and megaprojects in leading change for sustainability around the world, particularly in the context of the built environment. Multiplier firms are organizations that work with and offer ongoing sustainability solutions to a range of client organizations. Megaprojects are finite-duration initiatives involving multiple diverse entities in the design and delivery of a large-scale development, such as a brand new ecologically sustainable city. Drawing on four illustrative case studies of multiplier firms and megaprojects engaged in sustainability-related initiatives, we also explain the value of learning logic, in contrast to blueprint logic, for leading change for sustainability.

This article proposes that team reflexivity—a deliberate process of discussing team goals, processes, or outcomes—can function as an antidote to team-level biases and errors in decision making. We build on prior work conceptualizing teams as information-processing systems and highlight reflexivity as a critical information-processing activity. Prior research has identified consequential information-processing failures that occur in small groups, such as the failure to discuss privately held relevant information, biased processing of information, and failure to update conclusions when situations change. We propose that team reflexivity reduces the occurrence of information-processing failures by ensuring that teams discuss and assess the implications of team information for team goals, processes, and outcomes. In this article, we present a model of team information-processing failures and remedies involving team reflexivity, and we discuss the conditions under which team reflexivity is and is not likely to facilitate performance.